Two months had passed since the incident at the Yasl?rn caves, and there was no news about the appearance of a single Ifrytor.
It was new years eve, but nobody had the intention to celebrate it.
The entire year had been one terrifying incident after another, without signs of good news!
Rather than becoming better, the whole situation on Canir seemed to have worsened the more time passed!
After the incident at the Yasl?rn caves that killed every participant except one person, who behaved as if he was dead from the inside,? the Drake family had approached the Shiabi clan headquarters.
Within the group that approached them, Jael Drake, the Drake family patriarch had been present too!
Everyone knew that this was bad, however, instead of demanding, or attacking the Shiabi clan, Jael Drake just said a few words.
"Shane Blair! I know that you're here! Don't try to hide from me. Answer me just one question honestly! Otherwise, I'll destroy the whole Shandra country during the next few days!!"
Because it was already known that Shane's existence had been exposed, there was no need for him to hide anymore.
As such he revealed himself and flew into the air to answer Jael Drake's next question
"Did you kill my ancestor?"
It was a simple question and the answer was obvious to both sides, yet Jael Drake wanted to go sure about this fact.
After Shane had answered the question honestly with a simple, yet heavy "Yes", the small but powerful group behind Jael Drake turned around as he had said
"Prepare yourself for the new year because it will be your last! Everything you've witnessed this year will become even worse than you could have ever imagined and you will lose everyone dear to you!!! That is a promise!"
When Jael Drake had finished his threat, he left Shane and the Shiabi clan's headquarters once again, while the atmosphere had become heavy.
Shane had only two people he held dearly, while there was another one who was about to become important to him.
Dalia was his wife and he would do everything for her, and her disciple Emily was someone, Shane was slowly becoming attached to.
However, Jason was as important to Shane as Dalia, and it was painful to see how much he had suffered during the last two months.
It felt as if Jason was dead from the inside, and he had yet to overcome the sorrow and agony of Scorpio's death.
Some humans might not be able to understand how Jason was feeling. But everyone who had established a fortified soul conjunction with a soulbond they had raised since their birth, only to see it die in front of them, knew how much Jason suffered!
If that was everything, it would have already been enough to feel as if one's world was about to collapse, but Jason had to witness his soulbond sacrificing its life while bearing a tremendous amount of pain!
In the end, nobody, except Jason himself, was able to overcome this sorrow of his.
It didn't take long for him to change into the moveless statue he had become after he had returned to the Shiabi clan headquarters.
His physical wounds and burned skin might have already healed but that was not everything.
The biggest wound he had sustained was within his heart!
His burned skin healed, while Jason's hair grew back at a rapid pace, but the wound within his heart didn't seem to close, instead, it widened!
Jason had felt exactly the same when his mother has died, and it took him a long time to continue with his life as if nothing had happened.
Isga and his other friends tried to console him, but they were not sure what to say.
They never had to face a similar problem as Jason, and only Shane was able to tell him a story of his.
He had undergone a similar situation. It might have been less cruel, but every single time one lost someone dear, it was something painful.
As the best tipp, Shane said to overcome a loss was to stand up, to become stronger, and to never let anyone dear to one die, ever again!
Thanks to that, and the others' efforts to console him, Jason had been able to get the hang of himself.
Nevertheless, he neither talked nor did something with the others.
Rather than that, his only thoughts were focused on becoming stronger, and Artemis, who was forced to go through the same pain as Jason, was doing the exactly same.
By using up huge bulks of mana stones and nutrition solutions Jason could purchase from the Shiabi clan, he had been able to become much stronger.
In the end, he didn't even care about concealing his stigma from the Ariyor race or Shiabi clan anymore.
Jason was just focusing on becoming stronger. By utilizing the stigma with its fullest capabilities, he had been able to absorb much more mana than he would have been under normal circumstances!
At the same time, his liquefaction process accelerated drastically.
In the beginning, nobody noticed anything about Jason's high mana absorption rate, but when the quantity of mana he could absorb had started to reach the threshold of the Ariyor race, the people living nearby him, started to become curious.
Yet, they held themselves back in order to give Jason some space to cope with the pain in his own way!
However, that was only until Jason's mana absorption outweighed that of prodigies of the Ariyor race!
It seemed like Jason was only missing high-quality mana stones!
Fasro and the other Ariyosr had yet to enter the hall Jason had received from the Shiabi clan patriarch to cultivate without being disturbed from his surroundings.
They were curious and wanted to figure out what was going on with Jason, but at the same time, they didn't want to be rude, or even worse, interrupt his cultivation process!
Instead, they took out high-grade mana stones of a great quality which they laid down in front of the door to Jason's hall.
This was how the Ariyor showed their condolences about the loss he had to process and overcome.
Normally, other races wouldn't understand the bond between humans and their soulbonds, but after Shane had explained it in simple terms, everyone began to comprehend the importance of soulbonds and how firm the relationship between both humans and their soulbonds could become.
It was not that everyone was close to their soulbonds, but Shane had also explained what exactly a 'fortified soul conjunction' meant!
If one were to say that it was just a firm connection between a master and their soulbond, it would be an underestimation!
In the end, it was more like master and soulbond started to become part of one entity! It was impossible to call them multiple individuals anymore, but we're slowly turning into one entity!
With that in mind, a part of Jason had just died and the Ariyor could hardly process how painful this had to be!
Yet, when they had wanted to return to their camp, Fascro, his sisters, and a few other Ariyors that wanted to give their condolences to Jason saw him leaving his cultivation room to bring the mana stones inside.
At that moment, they sensed his overwhelming aura and his golden-silverish stigma that glimmered brightly.
Everyone present stiffened at that moment, and their mind was unable to comprehend what was going on!
"J-Jason...are you really...a human??"
Yet, at that time, Jason didn't seem to have heard Fasro who had asked him a question, as he had turned around to continue cultivating.
Even though the Ariyors that had been present wanted to figure out more from Jason, they had seen his eyes that seemed to be more dead than alive!
As such, they knew that it was useless to ask him any questions.
This led them to avert their attention to Jason's masters, Shane and Dalia who should know more about Jason than they did!
Unfortunately, neither Shane nor Dalia said anything about Jason's origin when they had asked him.
Instead, they asked in return.
"Can't you guys tell which race he comes from? Other races were able to do that!"
With this, Shane and Dalia meant the Shadow Walker, Deepsea Scion, and Ganasia that had perceived Jason's aura before!
Yet, when they had heard Midra's answer, worry overcame them.
"I've never perceived an aura like this! His stigma is genuine and naturally awakened, which means that he hails from an extremely strong race, but this aura….It's gentle, kind and full of, yet thirsting for blood, revenge, to kill and eradicate everything that stands in its way!"
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